Finding Your Roots

Beatrice's parents were Robert Willis and Elnora Carrington.

The two may have projected a calm exterior, but as we looked into their lives, we discovered a great deal of turmoil beneath the surface.

Records show they married in 1915 and that they had their first child, a son, about a year-and-a-half later.

But their happiness did not last.

Wow.

"In police court, Robert Willis, 33 years old, colored, was saved from a term of 60 days in the penitentiary yesterday by his wife.

Willis was arrested early yesterday after he had struck his wife.

Mrs. Willis, carrying a baby, begged Justice Kohlmetz to be lenient.

So the man was ordered to report to parole agent A.J.

Masters."

You never heard anything about this?

Wow.

That's sad.

That's really, really sad.

Just to think that the one that he hurt was the one that saved him.

Mm-hmm.

Well, she clearly saved him 'cause he was gonna go in the can.

Whew, wow.

This was the only mention we found of anything involving Robert and Elnora and the law.

So it may have been an isolated incident.

However, it was not the end of the couple's struggles.

"Robert Edgar Willis, infant son of Robert and Elnora Willis, died yesterday morning at their home."

In March of 1918, Robert and Elnora lost their baby boy just before he turned eight months old.

Wow.

How sad to lose a baby.

How do you think that might have shaped their relationship?

Must have strained it.

I can imagine it would've strained, if they were already going through anything.

If there was already discord in the marriage, losing a child is, it could either go one of two ways.

It could either bring them closer together or it could push them further apart, you know?

So I imagine since there was already some marital discord, that it may have pushed them further apart from each other.

Okay, could you please turn the page?

Can you read the transcribed section of that document in front of you?

"Certificate of birth.

Name of child, Beatrice E. Willis.

Date of birth, November 20th, 1919.

Name of father, Robert Willis.

Name of mother, Elnora Carrington."

Now, I know you've seen that before.

Yes, I have.

But what's it like to see it now in the context of this story and think of your grandmother as a young girl?

Well, it looks like they're trying to stick it out.

You know, her parents are trying to stick it out.

You know, they're trying to make things work maybe.

At least, I hope, that that's what that means for them.

And I hope that, I hope that my grandmother's childhood as an infant, as a little one, as a newborn in this world, I hope that there was peace there for her.

You know, that there was a safe place and a calmness there for her, I would hope.

Security.

Yeah, I would hope so.

We don't know if Beatrice was born into a peaceful home.

There are no further records even to suggest why Robert might have said that she wasn't his daughter.

To learn that, we had to turn to DNA.

But first, we needed to know more about Robert.

As we've seen with our other guests, genetic genealogy requires a family tree to make sense of DNA relationships.

And nobody knew anything about Robert's family tree.

Joyce herself had made significant efforts to reconstruct it, but she didn't even know Robert's parents' names.

We set out to change that, and after combing through a maze of documents, we discovered that Robert was the child of a couple named Howard Willis and Francis, or Fannie, Steward.

This discovery led us to the 1870 census for Virginia, where we saw Robert's family tree begin to grow exponentially.

"Mat Steward, age 45, male, Black.

Occupation, farmhand.

Place of birth, Virginia.

Sarah Steward, age 35, female, Black.

Occupation, keeps home.

Place of birth, Virginia.

Francis Steward, age 13, female, Black.

Place of birth, Virginia."

Recognize any names on that census record?

Francis Steward.

Francis Steward, right.

Okay.

That's Francis Steward in the household of her parents, whose names are Mat and Sarah Steward.

If Francis, or Fannie, was, in fact, Robert's mother, then Mat and Sarah were his grandparents.

So what's it like to learn that?

That's really cool.

I never thought I would ever get to see these names.

I was just so stuck.

I never thought I would ever see these names.

Well, that's why the Lord sent you here.

Yes, exactly!